D&D General My Problem(s) With Halflings, and How To Create Engaging/Interesting Fantasy Races

[Aldarc]

Re Tieflings and Dragonborn: I don't think that the present player popularity of either of these two ancestries is so much a by-product of anime, World of Warcraft, hula hoops, rock and roll, or whatever popular media out-of-touch grognards want to blame on the changing tastes of players. Instead, I suspect that it's simply a by-product of D&D's own self-created fantasy catching up with itself. Initially, hobbits/halflings were brought in because the early players were fans of Lord of the Ring. However, as D&D grew and evolved, it began inventing its own brand of fantasy with new fantasy ancestries and creatures, and dragonborn and tieflings were a part of that. It's people growing up with D&D-style fantasy and wanting to play that D&D fantasy.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Re Tieflings and Dragonborn: I don't think that the present player popularity of either of these two ancestries is so much a by-product of anime, World of Warcraft, hula hoops, rock and roll, whatever popular media out-of-touch grognards want to blame on the changing tastes of players. Instead, I suspect that it's simply a by-product of D&D's own self-created fantasy catching up with itself. Initially, hobbits/halflings were brought in because the early players were fans of Lord of the Ring. However, as D&D grew and evolved, it began inventing its own brand of fantasy with new fantasy ancestries and creatures, and dragonborn and tieflings were a part of that. It's people growing up with D&D-style fantasy and wanting to play that D&D fantasy.

also, they have a simple to grasp premise, play a devil/demon but pc sized you look like hell boy and that is sufficient for most people.

dragonborn be a dragon but with hands and pc sized.

they have a very obvious appeal to them, I forget what elves is but they likely have one.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I have plenty of younger (20s and 30s) players in my group, and they show no interest in dragonborn whatsoever. Not even "I would play one if they where mechanically better". But halflings are popular.

Tieflings are an odd case. Tiefling characters start out but for some reason they seem to have a very short life-expectancy.

 

[ccs]

several of those highlights the problem I have with them interesting stuff happens to them they would otherwise never go out of their lane for anything.

This is not unique to my 1/2ling characters though. Or even to D&D characters in general.
Books, movies, comics, plays, RPGS, cmputer games, myth/legends, religion.... Interesting stuff happens to ALL protagonists to get the stories rolling.

barbarian rage is not untrained fighting, it is closer to a medical condition do not speak to me of rage as I better than most.

* Know this: Whatever you consider barbarian rage to be means nothing to me. And I don't care what your personal problems are.

*As I stated that it was the mechanic that best fit the concept. I could express the concept better in several other RPGs. But the game I happened to be playing was 5e. So working with the clay I had available....
Despite the classes listed HPs, weapon proficiencies, and the Prof. bonus, she's not a trained combatant like a fighter. She often (as long as I've rage uses) fights recklessly - advantage for the foes to hit her as she doesn't understand the defensive aspect - and wears herself out (the lvs of exhaustion gained).

the big game hunter makes no sense, halflings do not care for the thrill of the hunt so they would never become one.

Once again I will point out that you are making the mistake of confusing NPC 1/2lings with Player Character 1/2lings.
You should stop doing that.

Oh, and as the player of that 1/2ling big game hunter? I can assure you that he most certainly does care for the thrill of the hunt.

yes, I know fr is not the only setting as I hate that setting but never found one that quite fits and none of them really fit halflings so I as again can you justify them as a major race, gods orc are more important than halflings.

The short answer is YES.
For the longer answer you can scroll back near the beginning of this thread & read my reply to Acerak any time you choose.

I do not have the luxury of being able to tell wotc to add what I want.

Sure you do. We all do. They can be contacted by mail, EMail, Twitter, FB, etc. They also send out surveys. Wether they listen....
But it doesn't matter because this is D&D and each group can customize it as they please to suit their own group. This is the games greatest feature & has been since 1974.
So if you intentionally eliminate 1/2lings from your version of the FR or whatever? Good for you.
If you invest the time & effort to do something cooler than the company ever has with 1/2lings? Good for you.
If you just kind of ignore them? Also good for you.

 

[Aldarc]

I have plenty of younger (20s and 30s) players in my group, and they show no interest in dragonborn whatsoever. Not even "I would play one if they where mechanically better". But halflings are popular.

Tieflings are an odd case. Tiefling characters start out but for some reason they seem to have a very short life-expectancy.

The overall trends regarding the popularity of dragonborn and tieflings aren't statistically dependent on your table.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The overall trends regarding the popularity of dragonborn and tieflings aren't statistically dependent on your table.

True, I just find the statistics for dragonborn surprising, given the complete lack of interest in my personal experience. I've nothing against them, they crop up occasionally as NPCs.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

True, I just find the statistics for dragonborn surprising, given the complete lack of interest in my personal experience. I've nothing against them, they crop up occasionally as NPCs.

Creatures that are so far removed to humans that they don't even have human-like faces is something a lot of people can't intuitively relate to terribly well and as a result do not want to play them. Though of course there is a significant portion of people to whom this is not a problem.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I have plenty of younger (20s and 30s) players in my group, and they show no interest in dragonborn whatsoever. Not even "I would play one if they where mechanically better". But halflings are popular.

Tieflings are an odd case. Tiefling characters start out but for some reason they seem to have a very short life-expectancy.

may I ask why they like halfings? are they just super into tolkien or is it something else?

This is not unique to my 1/2ling characters though. Or even to D&D characters in general.
Books, movies, comics, plays, RPGS, cmputer games, myth/legends, religion.... Interesting stuff happens to ALL protagonists to get the stories rolling.


* Know this: Whatever you consider barbarian rage to be means nothing to me. And I don't care what your personal problems are.

*As I stated that it was the mechanic that best fit the concept. I could express the concept better in several other RPGs. But the game I happened to be playing was 5e. So working with the clay I had available....
Despite the classes listed HPs, weapon proficiencies, and the Prof. bonus, she's not a trained combatant like a fighter. She often (as long as I've rage uses) fights recklessly - advantage for the foes to hit her as she doesn't understand the defensive aspect - and wears herself out (the lvs of exhaustion gained).


Once again I will point out that you are making the mistake of confusing NPC 1/2lings with Player Character 1/2lings.
You should stop doing that.

Oh, and as the player of that 1/2ling big game hunter? I can assure you that he most certainly does care for the thrill of the hunt.

The short answer is YES.
For the longer answer you can scroll back near the beginning of this thread & read my reply to Acerak any time you choose.

Sure you do. We all do. They can be contacted by mail, EMail, Twitter, FB, etc. They also send out surveys. Wether they listen....
But it doesn't matter because this is D&D and each group can customize it as they please to suit their own group. This is the games greatest feature & has been since 1974.
So if you intentionally eliminate 1/2lings from your version of the FR or whatever? Good for you.
If you invest the time & effort to do something cooler than the company ever has with 1/2lings? Good for you.
If you just kind of ignore them? Also good for you.

I meant halfling do not seek to become interesting they have no goal beyond getting back home or do what has to be done to get back home.

on the big game hunter how is he still a halfling? at that point we might as well use the elf stat block for orcs, they are defined a certain way so they have a core and the core is well an NPC character who only care for the comforts of home and has a streak of curiosity to go look at new things every so often.

the question is what is the point of this thing that could be moved into a specific setting book as it has no business being a common race, it is not a question about whether we can customise a setting it is where this thing needs to exist at all and if so why is it so high up other than blind tradition.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Creatures that are so far removed to humans that they don't even have human-like faces is something a lot of people can't intuitively relate to terribly well and as a result do not want to play them. Though of course there is a significant portion of people to whom this is not a problem.

Given that you don't actually see the facial expressions of your character in a tabletop game this doesn't seem like much of an issue.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Given that you don't actually see the facial expressions of your character in a tabletop game this doesn't seem like much of an issue.

it is identification, the ability to see you in the character, I have no idea how it works as I do not identify with anything I do not hate.